Licenses

Sources

For most Unix systems, you must download and compile the source code. The same source code archive can also be used to build the Windows and Mac versions, and is the starting point for ports to all other platforms.

Alternative Implementations

History

Python was created in the early 1990s by Guido van Rossum at Stichting Mathematisch Centrum in the Netherlands as a successor of a language called ABC. Guido remains Python’s principal author, although it includes many contributions from others.

Note: Barry's key id A74B06BF is used to sign the Python 2.6.8 and 2.6.9
releases. His key id EA5BBD71 was used to sign all other Python 2.6 and 3.0
releases. His key id ED9D77D5 is a v3 key and was used to sign older
releases; because it is an old MD5 key and rejected by more recent implementations, ED9D77D5
is no longer included in the public key file.

On the version-specific download pages, you should see a link to both the
downloadable file and a detached signature file. To verify the authenticity
of the download, grab both files and then run this command:

gpg --verify Python-3.6.2.tgz.asc

Note that you must use the name of the signature file, and you should use the
one that's appropriate to the download you're verifying.

(These instructions are geared to
GnuPG and Unix command-line users.
Contributions of instructions for other platforms and OpenPGP
applications are welcome.)

Other Useful Items

Looking for 3rd party Python modules? The
Package Index has many of them.

You can view the standard documentation
online, or you can download it
in HTML, PostScript, PDF and other formats. See the main
Documentation page.

Tip: even if you download a ready-made binary for your
platform, it makes sense to also download the source.
This lets you browse the standard library (the subdirectory Lib)
and the standard collections of demos (Demo) and tools
(Tools) that come with it. There's a lot you can learn from the
source!

There is also a collection of Emacs packages
that the Emacsing Pythoneer might find useful. This includes major
modes for editing Python, C, C++, Java, etc., Python debugger
interfaces and more. Most packages are compatible with Emacs and
XEmacs.